Hidden Gem: Scenic Vistas Are Plentiful In Region

You don’t have to drive far to find a great view around the Mountain Empire.
From the observation tower atop Pine Mountain at Birch Knob to the breathtaking vista afforded visitors to Whitetop Mountain, you’ll find secluded places to catch a breath.

Here are a few:

MOUNT ROGERS
You could probably hear an insect crawl. Far from any road, Mount Rogers is just that quiet. It’s more than a mile in the sky – with an elevation of 5,729 feet.
And it’s wet, like a rain forest, with wondrous green moss caking just about every plant, every rock, every limb.
This is the highest point in Virginia, a place topped with an evergreen forest that produces an aroma as rich and inviting as any Christmas tree you’ve ever decorated.
Yet the weather here, on the Grayson-Smyth county line, can be unpredictable. Storms can move in quickly – and often, with little warning.
And the view? Well, you won’t really find one atop Mount Rogers, a summit covered with trees.
Mount Rogers seems to hide inside the clouds in the 120,000-acre recreation area that bears its name. To call it “hidden,” though, means simply that it is isolated. Or that you must be willing to walk to get here.
Traveling east or west along the Appalachian Trail, it’s about a four-mile hike to reach the spur that climbs to the crest.
One route starts at Grayson Highlands State Park. It follows the Appalachian Trail through open fields and crosses the rock-capped Wilburn Ridge. Another comes from the west, approaching the peak from Elk Garden, in Grayson County, Va., and staying mostly in the woods.
Off the Appalachian Trail, it’s another half-mile hike to reach the summit.
Mount Rogers takes its present name from William Barton Rogers, Virginia’s first geologist.

SOUTH HOLSTON DAM
Not long after the final touches were placed on building South Holston Dam in 1950, the Tennessee Valley Authority also provided a great overlook to scan the newly built reservoir.
You can drive across the 285-foot-high dam, which spans 1,600 feet, and get a great view of the 7,580-acre reservoir.
Looking the other way, downstream, views unfold Osceola Island and the weir dam – a trout habitat – on the South Fork of the Holston River.
At the dam, a shelter offers general information about the 24-mile-long reservoir on the South Fork of the Holston River, stretching from Alvarado, Va., to Emmett, Tenn.
Nearby, similar facilities – and great overlooks – also can be found on TVA-built dams at Boone Lake near Blountville, Tenn.; Fort Patrick Henry Lake between Kingsport, Tenn., and Colonial Heights; and Watauga Lake in Carter County, Tenn.

BREAKS INTERSTATE PARK
Known as both “The Grand Canyon of the South” and “The Grand Canyon With Clothes On,” Breaks Interstate Park is known for its postcard-perfect views of sweeping mountains and rocky waters, with a series of overlooks and several miles of trails.
But there is something else that this place has – a bit of the Bluegrass State.
Breaks Interstate Park stretches into Kentucky.
And that’s why it’s called an “interstate park.”
Inside the park, a series of overlooks provide views of the 1,600-foot-deep Breaks Canyon, located on the Russell Fork of the Big Sandy River.
Breaks lies about eight miles north of Haysi, Va., on the Dickenson-Buchanan county line.

HOLSTON MOUNTAIN
Holston Mountain provides the dramatic backdrop of downtown Bristol. And it’s a tree-lined wonderland, loaded with a huge portion of the Cherokee National Forest.
The Appalachian Trail runs across the top of the mountain, south of Washington County, Va., to trace the Sullivan-Johnson county line in Tennessee.
Here, about the only noise you’ll here is a squirrel running atop leaves or waters from a rippling stream.
Beware: Holston Mountain is a natural habitat for both deer and black bear.
Atop the peak, the views afford overlooks of South Holston Lake, below the summit, in Sullivan County, Tenn.

CEDAR BLUFF OVERLOOK
Now, this looks like heaven – rolls of green ridges, laced with a rocky river. And there’s Ol’ Glory, sailing high in the breeze.
You can view the scene like the birds do – at a 2,142-foot elevation. Only, it will take a lot of huffs and puffs, climbing wooden steps to get there.
Likely, you’ll be left breathless – and not just from the views at the Cedar Bluff Overlook Park.
And then?
Take a left. You can unwind – just beyond the overlook deck – with a gentle walk in the woods.
A recently built trail wanders into a wilderness area owned by The Nature Conservancy. The conservation group’s mountaintop property was acquired several years ago to help protect the watershed of the Clinch River.
The shady path uses natural stone steps, carefully crafted to ensure no damage to the environment.
Cedar Bluff Overlook Park is located along U.S. Highway 460 at Cedar Bluff, between Richlands and Claypool Hill, in Tazewell County, Va.

BURKE’S GARDEN
How Burke’s Garden formed might be anybody’s guess. Some say it was a volcano. Others guess it was once a lake bed.
The Tazewell County, Va., valley spans 20,000 acres. And it is hidden, encircled by the walls of Garden Mountain, with the valley’s floor at an average elevation of more than 3,000 feet.
The community takes its name from James Burk, a hunter who actually spelled his name without the “e.”
Burk chased a wounded elk into the wilderness here in about 1748. While in the Garden that first time, Burk ate a few potatoes he had sacked away. He left the peels behind. Explorers, coming here the following year, found a large bed of potatoes sprouting from the ground – and called the place “Burk’s Garden” (now “Burke’s Garden”) as a joke.
Scientists believe Garden Mountain – framing Burke’s Garden at its center – was once a dome rising more than a mile high. Then, little by little, after pushing itself higher and higher for millennia, the dome cracked – and water came rushing through the top of Garden Mountain.
The liquid ripped open the Silurian sandstone cap and then reached the softer limestone, eroding until a valley of fertile, flat land took shape.
This erosion, like the growth of the dome, took still more millennia to produce the effect that stands in the southeastern corner of Tazewell County today: a bowl of land surrounded by a single mountain.
You can find many views of Burke’s Garden from surrounding roads and trails, including the Appalachian Trail at Raven’s Rock.
“And we get four seasons, that’s for sure,” said Charlotte Whitted, a Burke’s Garden resident for the past 10 years. “I like that you never know what you’re going to get. It’s a microclimate. The snow drifts. It blows sideways.”
Burke’s Garden is most easily reached by state Route 623, coming from Gratton, on the headwaters of the Clinch River, near Tazewell. From the town of Tazewell, take state Route 61 north to state Route 623. Then, for six mountainous miles, brave hairpin curves and steep grades.
Entering the valley, many visitors stop to gaze over Burke’s Garden at the dam of the Gose Millpond.
The pond also marks the terminus of the Heart of Appalachia Scenic Drive and Bike Trail, a route that spans more than 100 miles from Burke’s Garden to St. Paul’s Oxbow Lake on the Russell-Wise county line.

GREAT CHANNELS
High atop Clinch Mountain, you can see for miles on sandstone cliffs. It’s a tranquil view that unfolds in a sea of unbroken forest, sandwiched between two state wildlife management areas.
Once, this wilderness was slated for a housing development along the mountain’s crest.
In 2004, however, this pristine view was saved.
The Nature Conservancy stepped up and paid $3.5 million for nearly 5,000 acres of land along Brumley and Clinch mountains. Within that purchase was a little-known, hidden formation known as “The Great Channels of Virginia.”
Basically a bunch of boulders hunched tightly together, “The Great Channels” form a maze of rock-walled crevices. And the maze appears virtually endless, forming what looks like a cavern with skylights.
The boulders rise as high as a two-story building. Maybe more.
Walls of the rocks range from smooth to rough. Passages allow just enough room for one person to pass – and, in some place, not even that.
This is a fascinating, colorful place to explore by daylight. But it could be downright spooky to be in these narrow, natural corridors in complete darkness.
Today, the Great Channels are part of a new state forest.
Still, plans are indefinite on how the public will be able to access the site.

HIGH KNOB
From High Knob, you can see Bays Mountain in Tennessee as well as Black Mountain on the Kentucky border. You’ll also find views that seem endless, looking into North Carolina.
High Knob, in Wise County, sits atop the watersheds, at the headwaters of both the Clinch and Powell rivers. It is part of the Jefferson National Forest.
Nearby, check out Flag Rock Recreation Area, where big boulders give an overlook of the city of Norton.
Maintained by the Norton Parks and Recreation Department, Flag Rock includes 18 camping sites in two campgrounds, each with bathhouses. Flag Rock also features a playground, picnic area, hiking trails and a 10-acre reservoir stocked with trout.
Direction signs to both sites are posted along U.S. Highway 23 at Norton.

LITTLE STONY CREEK
Stocked trout in Little Stony Creek’s noisy waters might lure fishermen to Virginia’s Scott County. But what really hooks hikers on the 2.8-mile-long Little Stony National Recreation Trail is the creek’s tendency to fall.
Splashing and spitting, Little Stony plunders in countless pools at the gut of its gorge in the Jefferson National Forest.
PLUNGE!
The creek flies below a bridge and drops two dozen feet in midair.
A universally accessible portion of the Little Stony National Recreation Trail leaves a gravel parking lot and reaches a scenic footbridge atop the falls in less than a quarter-mile. The trail then winds along the walls of a naturally chiseled stone amphitheater that frames the falls at its center.
Stone steps descend from the main trail to an overlook where hikers can soak in misty air and watch the waterfall flow.
Between Dungannon and Coeburn, this scene is a draw for tourists and also one of the attractions in a recently released driving brochure produced by Scott County, Va., tourism officials.
Hiking about a quarter-mile beyond these falls, look for a drop of about a dozen feet.
Beyond that, the creek careens over a black rock wall at a 30-foot-high cascade that can be overlooked at a wooden platform.
Embedded railroad ties provide evidence of the trail’s former life. During the early 1900s, a narrow gauge railroad chugged through the creek’s 1,700-foot-wide and 400-foot-deep gorge.
The timber train hauled raw wood to a nearby sawmill in Dungannon.
In 1936, after most trees had been harvested, the U.S. Forest Service acquired the area.
Today, cove hardwood and hemlock lushly line roaming rhododendron and masses of mountain laurel.

CROSS MOUNTAIN AT SHADY VALLEY
Mountains cradle the hidden valley called “Shady Valley” in Johnson County, Tenn.
This picturesque place, known for its wild cranberry bogs, takes its name from trees that were cut about a century ago, during a period of extensive logging.
Beaverdam Creek cuts through this valley, at its headwaters.
Then the watercourse slips north through Sutherland, eventually joining Laurel Creek at Damascus, Va.
Drivers can tour Shady Valley motoring east from Bristol along U.S. Highway 421, which joins state Routes 91 and 133 at the Shady Valley crossroads.
Views from the mountains cradling Shady Valley – Iron, Holston and Cross – offer views of rolling greens dotted by farmhouses, silos and handsome homes. The Cross Mountain summit, along the Carter-Johnson county line, climbs to 3,619 feet.